Patterns of Power: British Buganda is an in-depth case study examining the British colonization and eventual administration of the Kingdom of Buganda from the late 19th century to the kingdom's dissolution in 1966. Co-authored by Thomas J. Bryan with Claude (Anthropic), the study applies a rigorous political framework to analyze the mechanics of a "redirect" conquest—the strategic capture of a highly centralized, self-running native state to rule cheaply through its pre-existing institutions rather than replacing them. Utilizing the method of "information asymmetry," the text systematically contrasts high-minded imperial rhetoric with the stark, quantitative realities on the ground, placing Buganda's history within a broader comparative structure of historical conquests.

Comprising an introductory landscape and twelve thematic modules, the study traces the trajectory of colonial Buganda through various structural lenses. It explores the initial "floor of force" in the war against Bunyoro, the land-reforming 1900 Agreement, the Christianization of the sacred monarchy, and the class-conscious calibration of native education. It further deconstructs the hidden economic systems of delegated labor and cotton extraction, the role of an untranslated vernacular press, and the ultimate collapse of the colonial order when the "borrowed" native loyalty turned back against its imperial captors, culminating in the kingdom's tragic destruction in 1966.

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